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Radioactive tritium escaping from Pilgrim nuclear power plant

there are not enough monitoring wells, and that the EPA standards for allowable tritium are outdated.

Elevated levels of radioactive isotope at Pilgrim nuclear power plant – Boston Globe,  By Carolyn Y. Johnson,  14 July 2010, A monitoring well located on the ocean side of the Pilgrim Nuclear Station in Plymouth has registered elevated levels of the radioactive isotope tritium….

Pilgrim spokesman David Tarantino said that a multidisciplinary team of environmental engineers, chemists, maintenance and operations specialists, and others are now trying to pinpoint the source of the tritium.

“It’s in an area where there’s lots of underground systems that carry radioactive water, but we can’t even say for certain that it’s a leaking system yet,” Tarantino said. Another source of tritium contamination occurs during “washout,” he said, when tritium leaves the plant in water vapor and returns to the ground in rain…….

Mary Lampert, director of Pilgrim Watch, expressed concern that there are not enough monitoring wells, and that the EPA standards for allowable tritium are outdated.

Pilgrim is in the midst of seeking a 20-year license renewal.

Elevated levels of radioactive isotope at Pilgrim nuclear power plant – The Green Blog – A Boston Globe blog on living Green in Boston

July 14, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radiation, radioactive